Criminal
by salmon000001
Summary: Tim goes undercover and meets an unusual criminal. Oneshot.


If I had a penny for the amount of times I've read the word disclaimer..........

"I don't think that was meant to happen," Liam whispered to the man standing beside him. The lighting was low, throwing long shadows over the man's face; he was dressed in black jeans, sneakers and a t-shirt. Liam himself was dressed in similar colours and they stood side by side in the middle of the NCIS building. The wailing siren cut through the air and made him want to clamp his hands over his ears, but he didn't have that kind of luxury. The two men were only still for a second, and then they were running; they couldn't use the elevator, elevators automatically shut down. It was a fact he had looked up in case their plan went wrong, although he'd never expected it. Liam rushed towards the stairs.

"This way," he shouted, there was no need for them to be quiet now; they had already been found out. He ran down the stairs at top speed, until he almost tripped, and after that he went slightly slower. The other man followed behind him, breathing heavily. They reached the bottom and Liam, eager to get out of the NCIS building rushed ahead. Shame coursed through him, this would be the first time he had ever even set off an alarm when breaking into an agency building. Maybe he was losing his touch. As Liam sprinted into the entrance hall, a room containing desks and metal detectors, he skidded to a halt. For the first time since he had entered the building he felt shock and fear spread over his face. He backed away slowly from what he could only presume were NCIS agents ahead of him, their weapons steadily trained on him. There were 3 of them, a grey haired man, a brown haired man, and a woman. He turned and came face to face with his partner Tim, still breathing heavily, but steadily pointing a gun at him.

"Freeze," the grey haired man said,

"Good job Tim. Wanna do the honours," the younger man said tossing Tim a pair of cuffs. Tim caught them and stowed his gun back in its holster. He walked forward and pulled Liam's arms behind his back together. As Tim read him his rights Liam tuned out.

"_You have the right to remain silent…"_

He could've sworn they were friends; it just went to show that you could never trust anyone. Liam had been a bit of a loner, not just for the few years of high school he had completed, but life in general. He didn't really mind the solitude, it was just a constant, the way things were and always would be. At least that was what he had thought.

"……_.will be used against you in a court of law_……….."

Liam was smart, he knew that he was good at planning tactics, and to be honest, he liked thinking. Tim had been a similar sort of person he thought, He was smart, not with planning, tactics but with technology. He was able to have a serious conversation about science, philosophy and similar subjects. Just the other day they had been talking about subatomic particles, leptons, quarks and how they would react in different situations, it was an unfinished conversation in fact. Also, unlike the thugs he usually hired, Tim didn't have an unhealthy penchant for violence. He understood that sometimes stealth was better than fighting. At least that was what Liam had thought.

"……_cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you_…..."

If this mission had gone well Liam had even considered for the first time in his illegal career, asking Tim if he wanted to become partners. It would have been useful having someone who could hack into the computers while he was looking for papers. But everything was a lie. This Tim at NCIS was a totally different person. He felt betrayed and he had been. This was why being alone was best. No-one stupid relationships to complicated things. Anger flared through him. His plan would have worked if not involved Ti….. this NCIS agent. If he had not dared to believe that his life could change. Well it would change now; he would be stuck in prison, probably for a large number of years. He hated that agent.

"…_..understand these rights?_

"Yes," Liam said snapping out of his daze. Then Tim whispered something so quietly that only Liam could hear it. Liam did not doubt his sincerity, it rang true in every word, the tone of his voice. The words echoed in Liam's ear and they didn't help much. But they did help a little.

"I'm sorry."

---------------------------------------

Tim sat the darkened building and closed his eyes. It had been the trial of Liam Addison that day, and he had testified, both for the defence and the prosecutor. Liam had been a burglar for hire; he would sell his services to anyone who would pay. He would break into an agency building, whether it was the FBI, CID or any other similar organisation. He was usually paid to steal or destroy papers that would give criminals being prosecuted by the agency an edge. And no-one had been able to catch him, until now. Fornell had been keeping tabs on the burglar, and recently gotten information that one of their detainees had gone to the burglar for a way out of prison. Gibbs had put a little pressure on the man and he had cracked, telling them how his lawyer had arranged a meeting. The lawyer had been promptly arrested. So Gibbs put the squeeze on him. The lawyer held on a little longer than the criminal, but when he realised he was caught; he gave up what he knew for a deal; where they met, how they had arranged things. So Tim had gone in undercover as computer genius, who would hack into any system and get information for the client while the burglar searched for documents. Well not exactly searched. He had enough information so that he knew exactly where the papers were that he wanted. That meticulous planning had been one of the reasons he had been so hard to catch. But despite the fact he had been working with a criminal, Tim had found he quite enjoyed the young man's company. He was smart and could hold a conversation for more than 5 minutes without making a joke, movie reference, or threat to kill him. The man was quite solitary, like him, and had a good sense of humour, which had made the experience enjoyable. The only problem had been the bitter taste of the back of his throat when the man, just barely out of his teens dropped his guard and gave a genuine smile, while Tim knew he would eventually have to betray him.

Tony had gone home and hour ago, closely followed by Ziva, Tim but he had stayed behind to finish off paperwork. He leaned forwards in his chair and quickly typed the summary for his report and then emailed it to Gibbs, who was still sitting at the desk next to him. He got up, stretched, and picked up his bag and coat. Gibbs looked up.

"It was the Addison trial today wasn't it," he asked.

"Yeah," Tim replied.

"Good work on that case."

"Maybe."

"Why only maybe," Gibbs said.

"Well, um, we got the guy yeah, but we had to trick him and deceive him to do it."

"You sorry he's behind bars?"

"No, it's not that. He was just… an interesting person." Gibbs was silent and Tim turned to go.

"You could always go and visit him y'know, the case is over now"

"I'm not sure he would want to see me. I betrayed him."

"You'll never know if you never go."

Tim nodded. He stood in front of Gibbs' desk for a second and then turned around and walked away.

Tim entered the prison nervously. Although his testimony had helped the prosecution put Liam behind bars, it had also helped the defence make sure Liam was not in one of the top security prisons. He sat down on the plastic chair and watched as behind the clear sheet of plastic a man lead Liam towards him.

Liam looked up at his visitor and saw no other than Ti….. the cop. He picked up the phone hanging on the wall and pressed it to the wall. He saw the man opposite do the same.

"Hey, how you doing."

"Good. You?"

"Good." The conversation stalled, and Liam decided to try and be direct.

"Why are you here?" he sighed.

"We had some interesting conversations before….." He couldn't quite say it.

"You put me in prison!"

"But I put you in prison because I _had _to, it was my job," Tim said earnestly, "But I testified for the defence because I _wanted _to try and get you into one of the less dangerous prisons." Liam thought about it. He admitted that maybe he could still talk with Tim. It would be pretty interesting. After all, when they were at work, they were at opposite ends of the spectrum, him creating the crime, Tim catching people like him. And he supposed Tim hadn't known, just like he himself hadn't known what the other would be like before they met. Liam had expected the hacker he hired to be violent, crude, aggressive, or simply money hungry. He suspected Tim had probably thought the same about him. It wasn't necessarily Tim's fault; he had just been doing his job, they had just met in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe this time would be okay.

"Sure," he said, "Maybe we can talk sometimes."

"What were we talking about last?"

"Subatomic particles and how they react to gravity wasn't it?"

"Oh yeah."

After that Tim visited Liam once a month, and enjoyed the ideas they discussed.

Liam didn't enjoy prison all that much but he looked forwards to Tim's visits, however the thing he was most glad of was that he no longer carried with him as much anger. Before Tim's first visit he had been angry pretty much all of the time, feeling betrayed by everyone all the family and friends he'd had who'd not even bothered to stop by the prison. But after the visit it he had felt the flames in his heart dying down. They occasionally flared up, but now he made sure he always had a metaphorical bucket of water with him to douse them. A bucket over flowing with good memories of his family and old school friends, and new thought and ideas which contained hope for the future.

_Finis_


End file.
